In a shaky stock market environment, there is no better place to turn than the defense contractors. Leading the S&P index by about 20% in 2008 (the 8th straight year of better relative performance), the so-called “big five” have their work cut out for them in 2008 and beyond. It is pretty much a foregone conclusion that defense spending will increase this year.

With high global threat levels, the United States defense budget has historically increased regardless of the presidential party in power. Don’t listen to the fools that tell you a democrat president will cut the defense budget, that is simply not true. The funding put into homeland security as well as our defense budget is set to increase (President Bush recently introduced a $3.1 trillion dollar budget) regardless of the War on Terror’s outcome, and the big five defense firms are set to benefit. Read the rest of this entry »